http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/opinion/the-veil-womans-right-or-millstone/story-e6frg6zo-1225889544394
The veil: woman's right or millstone?
Ida Lichter
From: The Australian
July 09, 2010 12:00AM
THE association of Islamic dress with militancy is the source of Western fears, says Ida Lichter.
THE burka debate continues to trouble the West, often raising the question: why do many Muslim women enthusiastically embrace restrictions such as the hijab headscarf, nikab full-face covering and totally enveloping burka? In this context, Muslim women reformers have a great deal to say.
Saudi journalist Maha al-Hujailan believes the abaya, or black cloak, is a method of physical restriction, developed in a patriarchal society to enforce submission of women and used to "deny that a normal human being (is) under the black material."
The abaya and nikab, also known as Gulf clothes, would have been unfamiliar to women two or three generations ago and the Muslim Canadian Congress asserts they are "political symbols of Saudi-inspired Islamic extremism" rather than displays of modesty.
Taslima Nasreen has suggested women are covered because they risk arousing men and is affronted they should be penalised for men's lack of control.
Yemeni feminist Elham Manea disputes that veiling produces a more moral society, an argument often used to convince women to cover themselves.
Veiling, she says, is a demonstration of increased worldwide Muslim fervour, advanced by two political developments: the 1979 Iranian revolution, which fostered Islamic arousal, admiration and imitation, and the immense oil wealth of Saudi Arabia that fuelled the missionary activity of puritanical Wahhabi Islam.
Fear is an important factor in Iraq, Iran, Saudi Arabia and Taliban-controlled areas.
Houzan Mahmoud, of the Organisation of Women's Freedom in Iraq, has drawn attention to Basra, where about 15 women a month have been murdered by Islamist militants and religious police squads for breaching Islamic dress codes.
In Saudi Arabia, where moral police called the Propagation of Virtue and Prevention of Vice enforce Islamic dress, veteran reformer Wajeha al-Huwaider maintains that women are also controlled through fear of distressing their families, tribes and religious authorities.
Women in Iran can be arrested for transgressing dress codes, prompting Iran's Nobel Peace laureate Shirin Ebadi to remark: "It is not the state's business to tell women whether to cover their heads or not."
Lafif Lakhdar, a Tunisian male supporter of women's rights, believes Muslim women have internalised long-term subjugation and accepted the views of their oppressors. According to Lakhdar, women with uncovered hair were traditionally considered violable and, for this reason, Muslim slave girls and non-Muslim women were forbidden to wear the veil.
In opposition to many French feminists who believe banning the veil is an expression of cultural imperialism, Fadela Amara, French Muslim politician and a member of France's Consultative Committee for Human Rights, regards the hijab as "a visible symbol of the subjugation of women" and part of a "political use of Islam."
French President Nicolas Sarkozy has declared the burka an affront to women's freedom and social interaction, a position at odds with President Barack Obama, who, in his Cairo speech, sought to protect women's right to wear Islamic dress and "punish those who would deny it".
Significantly, his speech did not include condemnation of "honour killings" that may befall women who choose not to wear the hijab, or the harassment and suspension of female schoolgirls in West Sumatra who decline to wear the compulsory headscarf.
The health issue of complete cover and inadequate sun exposure is often overlooked. Sima Samar, noted Afghan doctor, politician and nominee for last year's Nobel Peace Prize, has emphasised the risk of osteomalacia, a softening of the bones caused by deficiency of vitamin D, usually derived from sunlight.
Islamists encourage women to wear the abaya and nikab in order to foster identification with the "umma", or global community of Muslims, and provide a pious model for other Muslim women to emulate. However, many women probably wear Islamic dress because a refusal to do so would cause too much trouble.
The late Sheik Mohammed Sayyed Tantawi, dean of Egypt's al-Azhar university, banned women from wearing the face veil in the university. But in bizarre contrast, a leading Iranian cleric, Ayatollah Kazim Sadighi, recently warned that immodestly dressed women provoke extramarital sex, thereby increasing earthquakes.
Traditional Islamic texts instruct women to dress modestly. There is no requirement for full-body or face cover but, according to American journalist Asra Nomani, more recent Saudi-financed translations of the Koran ask women to screen themselves completely, including even one eye. Nomani also fears the face veil can be a security risk, used by militants to stage attacks and avoid arrest.
Some reformers assert the full veil represents a rigid, literal reading of the Koran, which could endorse bigotry and domestic violence and, in its extreme form, a political jihadist message and severe misogyny.
More people are becoming aware of radical Islam manifested not only by violent groups but also self-styled peaceful organisations that undermine secular laws, champion sharia law and promote a transnational caliphate.
It is the association of Islamic dress with politicised religious ideology that is the underlying source of concern and fear in the West and a flashpoint for Muslim women.
Ida Lichter is the author of Muslim Women Reformers: Inspiring Voices Against Oppression, published by Prometheus Books, New York
Related Coverage
a.. French MPs debate burka ban The Australian, 1 day ago
b.. Ban the burka brawl hits home Courier Mail, 6 days ago
c.. Burka lifts the veil on insecurities The Australian, 25 Jun 2010
d.. Interviewee asked to remove hijab Herald Sun, 20 Jun 2010
e.. Taskforce to tackle abuse of Muslim women Adelaide Now, 21 May 2010
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